To say the relationship between Donald Trump and social media has soured over the last few years would be an understatement. After all, the powers behind Twitter and Facebook have been trying to calmly walk the line between free speech and fake news since the election, while the president has opted instead to jump rope with it. Social media platforms have made the first steps in pushing back against the president when it comes to instances of misinformation. And it’s caused an immediate stir in the White House at a time when the country is seized by other crises. Rather than turn a blind eye – as the company has done for years – Twitter decided to take a stand against misinformation by labeling these tweets with a disclaimer. Twitter added a line below Trump’s original tweet, asking users to “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” before taking the president at his word. Other social media companies have taken issue with the strategy: Social media’s role in political discourse has scarcely left the headlines since 2016, when social media was identified as the primary means by which Russia interfered with the US election. And, while Twitter might not have realized it at the time, this move has accelerated the debate substantially. On Thursday, the president signed an executive order aimed at weakening the legal positions of social media companies. More specifically, the executive order limits the legal protections afforded to social media companies outlined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This prevents them from being prosecuted for the content posted on their platforms. Many believe this law to be the bedrock of online freedom of speech. But, apparently, the president is done mincing words about these perceived slights. Simply put, Trump wants to treat social media companies as publishers who are responsible for what gets posted and how they respond to it. His argument is that the fact-checking and deletion of patently false and offensive material is akin to politically-motivated censorship. Social media companies may have differing opinions on the idea of censorship and fact-checking, but their consensus was unilaterally against this executive order. Even Zuckerberg himself stated in an interview with Fox News that censoring a platform to prevent censorship is “not the right reflex.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020 There’s a lot to unpack there, but the most significant is the president’s overt call for violence against American citizens protesting in Minneapolis – an outright violation of Twitter’s rules and restrictions. The social media company was more than prepared to drop a content wall on the tweet, warning users about the glorification of violence on the other side. Which seems like more than a good enough reason to start holding an account… accountable. In 2020, we now know exactly how influential our favorite social media platforms are, and the time for passive observation is over. These platforms have been proven to aid in the spread misinformation – sometimes through the use of bots – and have the capacity to taint the democratic process for the foreseeable future. The conduct that takes place on social media may well deserve more oversight, but so do the social media companies themselves. Between outrageous data-mining efforts and questionable anti-trust practices, the likes of Facebook and Twitter have been far from ethical when it comes to how they do business. A bit of regulation could go a long way in making these platforms more progressive and less dystopian. However, Trump’s call to “revoke 230” does not mirror that common-sense sentiment. As you might have guessed, this executive order is nothing more than a petulant response to being fact checked for the first time, and legal experts are still debating whether or not the move is anything more than “just noise.” Lead image: David Joles/Star Tribune, via Associated Press
